I’ve finally finished a project!

Well, at least finished a project to the point that it can be made public. I’m still working on some of the finer details, but here it is:

Tango Smileys Extended

TSE is a WordPress plugin designed to disable the builtin text-to-graphical smiley parser and utilize a new parser, thus extending the smileys available from the standard 18 to 186! Many smileys also have multiple input shorthand.

For more information, check out the TSE homepage here. Once the plugin is approved by WordPress, it will be available for download here, but for now you can download it from the TSE homepage.

I should have posted this earlier, but better late than never!

After working on my previous issue with texture corruption in 3D with my Radeon HD 3650, I was perplexed as to why I could not install the v8.9 drivers and CCC, considering the HD 3650 is listed as being supported by version 8.9. I dug into the installer and actually found the issue, and it was simple to fix!

As it turns out, the v8.9 drivers and CCC do support the Radeon HD 3650, but perhaps the card manufacturers – though using the same chipset – identify the chipset differently. The problem I had that prevented my 3650 from being supported was that its Hardware IDs are reported as

However, the supported Hardware ID for the ATI Radeon HD 3650 AGP is

PCIVEN_1002&DEV_9596

Thus the only solution that I came up with was also the working solution, and this is what I came up with.

The v8.9 installer comes in two flavors. ATI provides an installer for the Catalyst Control Center (CCC) which includes the drivers, and a standalone installer for the drivers if you don’t want CCC. Either way, the solution is the same. Please note, though, I’m using Windows XP. This solution may not work for Vista users. If it does work in Vista, please let me know.

1. Download the installer (either one) from the AMD/ATI site here.
2. Run the installer.
3. If the installer alerts you that supported hardware was not found, click ok. The installer will close.
4. Open either of the following folders, depending on your installer:
   C:\ATISUPPORT8-9_xp32_dd_68898XP_INF
   C:\ATISUPPORT8-9_xp32_dd_ccc_wdm_enu_68898DriverXP_INF
5. Open the following file in a text editor:
   CX_68898.inf
6. Locate the heading on line 34:
   [ATI.Mfg.NTx86]
7. Add an extra line below the heading and insert the following text:
   "ATI Radeon HD 3650 AGP" = ati2mtag_RV630, PCIVEN_1002&DEV_9596&SUBSYS_00281043
8. Save the file and run either of the following, depending on your installer:
   C:\ATISUPPORT8-9_xp32_dd_68898\Setup.exe
   C:\ATISUPPORT8-9_xp32_dd_ccc_wdm_enu_68898\Setup.exe

If everything goes according to plan, you will have the current drivers and CCC if you chose the CCC installer.

I’ve decided that Showtime On Demand is the shit.

I started watching Californication to see if it was as good as the other Showtime series that I watch. I have to say, it’s not quite as good as Dexter, in my opinion, but it is definitely funnier than Weeds.

I watched the whole first season on Showtime On Demand, and as I scrolled down the list I noticed that episode 12 was listed as the season finale, but there was an episode 13 listed!

Could it be? Could they have accidentally added the season two premier to the On Demand list before it actually premiers?!?

INDEED, THEY DID!

Now, I’ve checked the On Demand list tonight – one day before the season two premier – and now there’s an EPISODE 14 listed!

The only thing that could make me happier is if they accidentally added the first episode of season three of Dexter. Thanks to DVD Screeners, however, I’ve already seen the first episode.

So, if you have Showtime On Demand and you watch Californication, check out the first two episodes of season two. I’m not sure if the additions are limited to BrightHouse Networks, but I’m almost certain that it’s not.

I’m at work right now, and I’ve got a feeling that I’m in for another crap-tastic weekend.

Last weekend was pretty boring, but with a planned crowd of at least 600 people for a single showing of Fireproof, things are looking a little less boring. Well… At least for two hours.

It doesn’t help that everything else that we opened today is complete garbage, either. I’m expecting to be bored again once all of the interlocking excitement is over.

Boost Mobile Anthem 2
Young Jeezy, Jermaine Dupri, and Mickey Avalon

Get the Flash Player to see this content.

If you’ve watched TV at all this year, you’ve probably seen the Boost Mobile Anthem 2 commercial at least once. Chances are, if you watch TV regularly, you’ve seen it dozens of times. The commercial stars Young Jeezy, Jermaine Dupri, and Mickey Avalon raping an annoying song that ends with the Boost Mobile slogan Where you at?

I’ve had the unfortunate pleasure of seeing this fucking commercial two dozen times just today! (I’ve discovered FEARnet On Demand, which is sponsored by Boost Mobile.) It’s very easy to be annoyed by this commercial, so imagine trying to not be annoyed when it’s on every 30 minutes. You would be as angry as I am.

The hatred I have for this commercial extends to all of the Boost Mobile commercials. They’re idiotic, ignorant, and all annoying in their own way.

It also doesn’t help that the Boost Mobile slogan Where you at? is so ignorantly incorrect that it alone makes me angry. Is it so hard to speak correctly? There’s no verb and the question ends with a preposition! How about, “Where are you?” I guess that’s not catchy enough.

I don’t know the quality of service you get by using Boost Mobile, and I’m not going to speculate or debate how good the service is, but these commercials are absolutely horrible and they do not speak well for the company or the service provided. If I used the commercials as the sole basis for deciding which cell phone provider to go with, Boost Mobile would be at the bottom of the list.

Oh, yeah. The commercial is on the right if you’re mental enough to want to watch it. You’ve been warned!

Where you at? I be where I’m am at. Don’t hate!

I feel dirty all over now.

I’ve recently had an issue with my new video card that I have also found the fix for, and I thought I would provide the fix for anyone who might be having the same issue.

My new Asus AH3650 Silent (Radeon HD 3650) came with the Catalyst v8.7 drivers, which were installed properly upon Windows XP bootup. The Radeon HD 3650, in AGP, has issues when displaying certain textures in 3D games. All other aspects of the card worked perfectly, but strange banding and discolloration occured when any D3D game was loaded.

As it turns out, the problem is actually two-fold. First, AGP FastWrite must be disabled in BIOS. The AGP FastWrite option does not properly write the texture data to the video card. Next, AMD-ATI has provided a HotFix for Catalyst and the Radeon HD 3000 Series drivers. You can get the HotFix here. This will update Catalyst and your drivers to v8.8. The HotFix also includes SmartGart for CCC, which provides information on the state of the AGP and PCI slots, and allows you to test them to make sure AGP FastWrite is off. Once v8.8 is installed and the PC is restarted, crank up the settings in the 3D menu and load up your game of choice!

This issue is also present in the Radeon HD 2000 Series cards, and the same steps may be taken to solve the problem.

Here’s a full description of the issue, to help diagnose if you are suffering from this problem:

• Broken textures that should be solid (i.e. A box that should be solid, but has transparent stripes.)
• Broken textures that display in color bands – most likely purple or green.
• Transparent or semi-transparent textures that tile as solid, with severe artifacting and discoloration.
• Text that displays garbled or text with textured backgrounds which appear garbled.
• Fullscreen images or framed images that appear “lens-flared.” The best way to describe this is if you imagine you have a picture, and in the top left corner you have a smaller copy of the picture, and another smaller copy of the picture in the top left corner of that picture. Many times, the copies are distorted in some way – whether stretched or discolored – but are clearly the same as the main image you are supposed to see.

I hope this helps at least one person, and it doesn’t take them long to find this post to get help. I worked on this issue for a couple of days before I found out what the problem was, and it was still trial and error before I found the final solution.